Bella Rhys Designs

Yum

2011-09-07T11:11:00.000-05:00

A pretty little bouquet of headpins...

They're already made into earrings along with many more.

Loving the raku frit ones especially...

I think these make the prettiest "daily" earrings. I've been wearing mine like crazy.

This weekend I'll be at the Art Spectacular at the Carillon in Washington Park.

If you're local please stop by and say hi!

Another bullet

2011-08-16T13:03:00.000-05:00

The Bullet.

Our old Boston, Tammy-(who passed away 6 years ago) was lovingly nickname "the Bullet" by our old neighbor.

Lighning quick.

Maybe it's just a Boston thing.

She's always on heh move and it's so hard to get a good photo of her.

Ridiculous.

And growing like a WEED. I swear she's grown 2 inches at least in these 2 wks of having her.

I seriously can't wait to be able to sleep in again though. It's like having a newborn all over again...

In other news...

Gearing up for my largest art fair to date. Then another large one the weekend immediately after that.

3 weeks I have to get my butt in gear, get more stock and sew tablecovers.

Gosh, I hope my sewing machine will work for me this time...

A little stressed...

Gabe has his tonsils/adnoids out tomorrow.

He told me at the park awhile ago he thought he was going to throw up...

All of the neighbor kids have been passing the sickies around for a couple weeks and I was hopeful we'd avoided it---high fever and throwing up and lasting over a week...

This CANNOT happen now! I will be paranoid all day and night waiting for something to pop up and have to cancel his surgery at the last minute...

School starts next Monday for Chloe and Sept 6 for the boys. Amazed at how many blogs I've read where their kids have started school a week or more ago!

Listening to chatty boys upstairs who are supposed to be napping...(

Feeling a little funny now myself. Telling myself it's allergies and exaustion from the dog having me up so early each day so I crank up the kiln and go ahead and torch at 7am for awhile...

(I'm totally a sleeper...torching at 7am is so not my thing!)

I need a nap now...lol

Colors

2011-08-15T08:10:00.000-05:00

Pardon the dust on the bust (lol)

I've had a handful of glass button flowers (inspired by Cassie Donlen) that I knew I wanted to make something with and it finally came together the other day :)

Fun fun colors...

Bits and bobs

2011-08-12T18:59:00.000-05:00

I have pendants on the brain these days...

Fun interchangable bits of whimsey...;)

Gettin down to business...

2011-08-04T08:29:00.000-05:00

Busy busy busy...new bracelet I whipped up yesterday....love it!! Petite and comfy :)

I have two big art fairs coming up in a month from now...time to get BUSY!

Introduction

2011-08-03T09:08:00.000-05:00

Why har-roww there!

My name is Gigi!

(Mom made me this nifty temprary nametag from an old washer).

I am 2 months old today!

I love:

toes

shoelaces

hinges (?)

wicker

an old towel

my teddy bear

I have:

the softest fur

nice white socks on my front feet

1 black toenail on my left foot (my birthmark;)

a pretty pink argyle collar

sweet puppy breath

a funny soprano coyote howl (that comes to visit at 5:45 am each morning)

a cute little bellybutton on my chubby belly

I came to live with my new family 3 days ago. So far I'm fitting in just fine...;)

I might be a smidge happier if these kids would let me down on the floor now and then though...lol

Coming home.

2011-07-30T13:39:00.000-05:00

The biggie was able to be crossed off last night.

To be continued...

Charleston part 4 (the end.)

2011-07-15T08:36:00.000-05:00

That would be me.

Our last day we spent sweltering at Charlestown Landing.

Ours pics from there were nothing special so I won't be showing those...but we had a fun time.

The kids loved the little zoo they had.

But man was it hot that day...

Later we ended up at the beach to cool off and say goodbye to the Atlantic...

Sawyer

swoon.

love this shot-sooc too!

Another goofy "family photo"

I think I love it ;)

I look talllll and skinny lol

Started finding a few jellyfish laying around...

Love the evening light on the beach...

Sawyer's footprints over to everyone else...

Sandbar at Sullivan's.

Finally! 2 sand dollars that could come home with me.

We loved that enormous tidal pool/sandbar area at Sullivan's Island! It was so cool.

Sawyer way back in the distance looking for seashells...

Can't wait to go back. Can't wait.

My new necklace

2011-07-13T22:25:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness-I think I'm in love!

I know it's nothing fancy-but it's just so me...

Simple sterling bits melted into pebbles, slightly flattened with the kiddos initials on them.

So dainty-each are about the size of my pinky nail :)

love love love it!

Charleston~part 3

2011-07-13T11:45:00.000-05:00

USS Yorktown

Loved showing the kids the type of ship their Papa had been on for years when he was a Navy diver.

Inside

Future pilot?

Climbing all over that ship and up and down all those super steepsteps brought it all back to me when we used to visit my Dad on his ship.

Submarine hatch

Downtown wandering around

Charleston by the fountains downtown. Forget the name of the area.

I really kinda like this photo of us.

Another try at a family photo near the fountains in some alley.

Sawyer gets a little lost over to the right side lol

There are continuous shots of Travis falling after this one was shot..

Should have posted those instead lol

The best Greek food-p.e.r.i.o.d.

Seriously-melt in your mouth gyro meat-wow.

Run don't walk if you're in the area.

Downtown-Meeting street or King-I forget.

Chloe found a live conch

She threw hiim back of coarse...

But then some other teenage girls found it and were talking about taking it home :(

Sunset.

Sullivan's Island over the tidal pool.

Our last evening...

Breaking for a craft

2011-07-12T13:08:00.000-05:00

Toilet paper roll crafts~

Today's choice was owls.

Bend the ends in towards each other to create little ears and paint...

Add a little wedge for a beak

Some google eyes...

I used scrapbook paper for wings

All lined up pretty on the window ledge...

Chloe's

Gabe's

Mine

Sawyer's.

He wanted his just like his brothers-lol.

Timewise it was just about perfect-not too long to cause a huge mess but long enough to keep them entertained and not arguing-lol.

We're in the midst of some crazy heat in Illinois so it's been more arts and crafts with the kids and less heating up with the kiln...but I've got some ideas cooking up with my time away from my studio :)

Vacation Part 2

2011-07-08T19:46:00.000-05:00

A few from the next day or 2...

Yes, I'm a foot picture taker...

Pretty much sums up how all of the group pictures turn out.

Walking around downtown Charleston.

Hyman's seafood downtown Charleston.

Vanilla Ice and Sandra Bullock also ate at our table lol

Family photo taken at the Angel Tree-John's Island, SC.

The Angel Oak Tree

This is maybe 1/3 of it?

I've never seen anything so enormous!

1500 years old approx?

Gabe at the Battery

Sawyer at the Battery

Canons at the Battery

Unitarian church, downtown Charleston.

The cemetary has always drawn me in-it's amazing.

The biggest onion rings I've ever seen...

Pitt street bridge, Mt. Pleasant~

A beautiful spot for a sunset walk :)

Hung out with this crazy guy and his huge great danes for awhile.

A crab pulled up on Pitt street bridge.

Sunset view from Pitt street bridge~

Gorgeous!

Vacation~South Carolina

2011-07-07T08:31:00.000-05:00

I'm a month behind on vacation photos but thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

Background:

We were a Navy family. The bulk of my childhood was spent in Goose Creek, South Carolina-just outside of Charleston. It was an awesome place to grow up-and an awesome place to visit.

I haven't been back in about 16 years-and that time was a quick drive-thru...

It's been 28 years since we moved away...

Honestly this may take me a few posts~just a warning...;)

Freaky turtles outside of Gilligin's resteraunt

Mount Pleasant

They seriously came if you called them and ate from your hand.

Tons of them. The kids LOVED them of coarse!

An awesome first evening :)

The best 3 hours of our trip.

My best friend from 1-4th grades-Michelle.

28 years since I'd seen her. She drove 7 hrs from Virginia to visit for such a short time.

So very thankful for the time we had! :)

My water baby

The coolest bike EVAH!

I wish I could have met the chic who rode this around.

I bet she would have been interesting :)

I would totally ride this.

So jealous~I want a Wonder Woman for my bike too...

Sullivan's Island

Home Team BBQ

"Painkiller" special.

No, I felt no pain for quite awhile...

My brother happened to be there at the same time we were-crazytiming!

He was working for Sister Hazel just down the beach so he ran down to hang out with us for the evening :)

I LOVE this shot.

So many fun things to find.

Tons of hermit crabs...crabclaws...horseshoe crabs...

*Pinch*

Chloe was pointing to the "treasure" she swore was washed up on the other side of the tidal pool and couldn't wait to get over there to check it out.

(there was no treasure-just a broken wood box-bummer)

But I just LOVE the pop in from the side by my brother-priceless.

;)

Happy 4th*

2011-07-06T11:17:00.000-05:00

Snap pops rock!

Hope you all had a great 4th!

Ten

2011-07-04T13:59:00.000-05:00

How has it been 10 years already?

A decade.

Half way to 20...

*omg*

Anyhow, our 2nd summer birthday has come and gone.

2 down 1 to go...

Chloe chose Osaka for her birthday dinner.

This is what they brought her for her birthday treat.

I am totally loving the sparkler!

She's the only steak eater...

Chloe and Gabe with Nana.

We were also celebrating her retirement as well.

I can't believe I didn't get anymore pictures on her birthday...

For once I just tried to sit back and enjoy instead of following her around with the camera.

I still can't believe I have a 10 year old...lol

Three days at The Gables

2011-06-30T14:03:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago today was the beginning of a very rainy 3 days in my tent at The Gable's Market Days :)

Here's a glimpse:

My tent~

I see sun! lol

Luckily it was nice for Thursday morning set-up.

We were on an incline on our side and I ended up switching my arrangement the next day.

Loved this one. It sold pretty quick. Glad I had a chance to get a photo of it.

My new fave's.

{love!}

Cluster necklaces.

Pink sold quickly.

I am in love with the grey...

If you know me you know I tend to wear grey/black in winter especially...

sigh~it might need to be mine ;)

A fun sterling bits necklace with deep blue/light grey accents.

A last minute ah-ha addition.

I'd been trying to figure out what to do with some thin flower disks I'd made...

I like how light and airy it turned out.

My new buddy Stacy :)

It's great to be next to someone who you can chat with for 3 days!

Stacy Krager is an awesome new natural light family photographer to our area.

Go check out her website-amazing :)

Ken Pease was across from me and was a super nice guy.

His painting are so whimsical.

Gabe almost yanked my arm off at the Old State Capital art fair when we passed his booth.

He LOVED his stuff and begged for anything lol.

Neat paintings...

Christy Freeman!

Sooo happy that I had Christy on the other side of my tent :)

We've been friends since 6th grade!

6th grade!

I love facebook and how it brings people back into your life...

We were able to plan being by each other and caught up for those 3 days.

I still remember in high school how freakishly talented she was with painting horses-it was her specialty at the time.

Her recent wildflower field paintings are so cool!

She's added glow in the dark paint to add dimention and a whole other image once the lights are off!

How cool is that? :)

I had a great time.

It was exausting-as I knew it would be-but was a little sad once it was over. lol.

Custom order

2011-06-29T13:12:00.000-05:00

~For baby Maddox's mama~

Simple sterling name tag $36.

Hammered, oxidized~slightly rustic.

Love it.

Our last 3rd

2011-06-28T10:16:00.000-05:00

Our #3 candle has been used for the last time :(

And all of a sudden he seems so HUGE to me!

We had an impromptu cupcake party with some neighbors.

How awesome are those cupcakes? I was inspired by a cake on pinterest and had to try it out.

You just take your cake batter and seperate it into small bowls and add food coloring.

(our mix was lemon but it was light yellow)

then just spoon in the different colors carefully and bake em up!

Sooooo pretty.

You could tell when each kid bit into one because they'd gasp and say Oh wow! Look!

Yes, my 4 yr old has "sleeves" sigh...

Can you tell someone figured out how to do tattoos on his own?

We had a bee sting as the party started.

Chloe got it on the lower lip-yeowch!

Finally caught a smile on her though-she had a rough time for a bit.

The parachute made an appearance.

The crew. Can you believe We have so many kids on our block alone?

Now, granted-6 of those are daycare kids down the block but they're a staple around here.

We were still missing 11 others that didn't come!

Can you imagine our block in the summertime?

Oh yes, it can be crazy :)

But a good crazy.

Summer List 2011

2011-06-27T13:49:00.000-05:00

So it seems everyone has been busy making their summer lists thanks to Meg :)

I had good intentions of making one last year but the summer just got away from me.

I work better with lists. This will work ;)

One thing is crossed off already-although we will be doing it many more times-is making popsicles.

This is actually a picture of some Orange Julius drinks we made the other day-thanks to Cassie Donlen for posting the recipe on facebook...I just couldn't get them out of my head until I made them.

It made so much we had plenty of leftovers-even with neighbor kids beinig here-

So what do you do w/ leftover orange julius?

Make popsicles!

Can you say YUM? wow. Almost like a pushup...

Here's the recipe I grabbed online that was the same as Cassie's:

1 can (6 ounces) frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

1 cup milk

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

10 to 12 ice cubes

{I doubled this recipe since frozen OJ cans tend to be 12 oz.}

In a blender, combine the orange juice, milk, water, sugar and vanilla. Cover and blend until smooth. With blender running, add ice cubes, one at a time, through the opening in lid. Blend until smooth. Serve immediately. Yield: 4-5 servings.

*I think the next time I make them as popsicles I'll have to add a little vanilla ice cream when I blend to make it a smidge creamier. Otherwise-they rocked!

Troubled

2011-05-17T09:25:00.000-05:00

I wish I could put into words what I'm feeling right now. It's not pretty and I am so conflicted over it it's exausting.
Disappointment-in adults who have taken upon the responsibility to shape young people's lives.That's a good way to sum it all up.
How can a coach stand over the top of this little boy and yell, wave his arms and publicly humiliate him over his very first goal that he was so excited about?
How can he take away his joy of kicking the ball through the cones for the first time?
How can he intimidate a 4 year old and make him feel unworthy?

I am fuming. My stomach is in knots. I feel so bad for him.

These were taken a few weeks ago during practice.

So Glad I caught these...since he won't be back-at least on this team.

Tomorrow

2011-05-13T15:31:00.000-05:00

My first race.

The Fat-Ass 5K is in the morning. Wish me luck.
I'm starting back by all the walkers-lol.

{man, I need to scrub my floorboards...}

One from today

2011-05-09T20:40:00.000-05:00

Our Irises bloomed today.

I'm not wild about their color on the outside-a deep dark burgundy-but their insides are gorgeous!

Hmm...I smell a bead color combo lol...

Speaking of: I've been hitting the torch alot lately and really cranking out the beads. I spent alot of time soldering little silver pieces today to mix in with the glass. I can't wait to start putting everything together.

Those first 6 or so beads came out soooo pretty. I can't wait to make a bracelet out of them. Just need a few more from my next torch session tomorrow and I should be good to go.

Heinous

2011-05-09T12:13:00.001-05:00

It is always a kick in the gut when the mailman brings you what felt like such a huge order and this is what you got (for over $200!)

*gasp*choke*

Guess I'd better get to work and see how far this will stretch. lol.

Of coarse silver prices plummeted over 20% the day AFTER I ordered. :(

BOO.

Magnolia

2011-05-03T19:53:00.000-05:00

I love our 2 magnolia trees. This year they bloomed early and shed fast-so these are from a couple of weeks back. I was just scrolling through some photos and wanted to share.

{Straight out of the camera-and loving how dreamy it turned out...}

{Sitting on the porch watching the boys play}

{The boys as bridges over the 'river'}

{A little fern popping through the petals}

Testing

2011-04-07T21:17:00.002-05:00

Having computer issues...

Spring

2011-04-07T13:56:00.006-05:00

Where does the time go? It's seriously just flying by-here we are in the last quarter of the school year already. Not that I'm sad to see winter go-heck no! I've actually been in an awesome mood today despite the grey dreariness outside because from the upstairs window this morning I caught a glimpse of leaf buds on the trees! And oour Magnolia trees are in full bloom. My most favorite thing ever-watching it all slowly start to turn green outside again...ahhh.

The winter blahs I think cause my quiet time here at the old bloggeroo. My grandmother passed away a couple of weeks ago and the week before I was fortunate enough to visit and tell her goodbye. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she's no longer here even though I know compared to the state she's been in for years she is in a much better place. I just miss her and hate how time changes things...

This might sound a little strange-but while in Missouri for the funeral I walked past the workout room in the hotel we were staying in and found myself dying to get on it. So while the kids swam with Travis I went in and walked-then jogged and broke into a huge sweat. I think it was a bit theraputic-the time to reflect about Granny but also think on what the next day will hold for her funeral. I really needed that time alone and to really work out some of my grief. You need to know though that I am not an avid exercizer...so it was kind of a big deal to me lol.

{A horse greeted us at Granny's farm when we drove by...}

A few days later talking with my chiropractor I was telling him about everything and he mentioned a race he and his wife are doing and suggested that I sign up. It's not the world's most serious race-it's called the "Fat Ass 5K" if that tell you anything. lol. They serve you donuts and beer while you run?! hehe. I'll wait til afterwards thanks anyway...

So really-it's got me focused on a goal-which is what I need. It's been a good distraction. I've changed my eating habits, been structured about starting back with the couch to 5K plan with fast treadmill walking on my off days for 30 minutes. I've lost 2 lbs and my stamina is only getting better!

I haven't made any jewelry lately-but I've been busy sketching up some new thoughts rolling around in my head. I've applied for 2 large art fairs that I've never done before...nothing like 2 huge motivators to get me moving here soon (I hope! I'll find out in a couple weeks if I've been accepted...) The crazy thing thing is they're one week after another in Sept so i will be going CRAZY if it happens. But a good crazy. lol. So just like the race-I guess I have to sign up to get my butt in gear. :)

2011-03-15T14:08:00.005-05:00

*So excited for the break in the weather this week! It was 74 today and I ended up with my first mosquito bite of the yr :(. There is talk of awful snow and ice next week (judging by people who read the farmer's almanac)-I hope it's wrong!

*Still pouring over images and the news in Japan. Heartbreaking. Counting my many blessings at this time.

*We broke down and finally bought the king mattresses I've been dreaming of for so long......only to have them not fit up our stairs! BOO! But...like I said in that last sentence-I am counting my blessings...no matter how broken down our current bed is : we have a bed-and of that I am thankful.

*Chloe knocked one of her front permanent teeth back a little last week when she fell at recess. I hope the tooth doesn't die.

*I think the change in weather is starting to awaken my creative side again. I go dormant and hibernate during the dreary winter...

*We have been tuckpointing and painting our basement. It's a mess.

*Planning our vacation to Charleston, South Carolina! I can't wait to visit where I grew up and hopefully meet up with old friends!!

*Wishing I was on my way to Ohio to visit a certain 1 yr old for his big bash

*Yesterday was a very hard day for me. My grandmother won't be with us for much longer and I went to say goodbye. I know this next week will be a difficult one.

Awesome project!

2011-03-14T16:23:00.001-05:00

I love this

Anticipating

2011-01-31T14:20:00.002-06:00

These are from our last big snow over Christmas.

I wish I'd gotten a decent one of Gabe the day we played out there-all of his shots show snailtrails...oh well.

Starting today through Wednesday we are supposed to get 12-20 inches of snow. I've been watching the sleet start and stop over the last few hours.

I'm just glad I'd gone to the grocery store and had gotten gas this past weekend before they announced this storm moving in. Chloe's really jazzed about having that much snow to play in-i just groan. All I want is spring....

Someone said on facebook today that spring is 49 days away...the countdown has begun.

WIWW-New tops

2011-01-18T20:33:00.003-06:00

~Once again, Linking up with the Pleated Poppy for WIWW~

Last weekend I made a trip to Goodwill to see if I could run across any treasures. I don't usually have time to go through the clothing but this time I did and am glad I took the extra time.

I have also been noticing in my closet {& on WIWW posts) that I tend to lean towards alot of grey and black. Not sure what that says about me but my closet it slowly getting overrun with darkness...

So when I ran across this sweater and saw it in my size I was so excited! It's still a neutral. Our lighting is a little yellowy in the foyer where I take the pics. It's actually more of a beigey-cream. I love the cut! I have been gravitating towards this style of top yet most tend to look a bit maternity. This one made me feel fairly thin :)

Cami-Kohl's

Sweater-Ann Taylor Loft (goodwill)

Jeans-Old navy

Boots-Old Navy

Necklace-made by me

Closeup of necklace

Chloe wanted in on the action this week. I wish i could fit in that outfit-love that top and her boots...

On the same Goodwill trip I found this brand new V neck sweater. It's so soft...I have no clue what brand it is-the tag just has big hibiscus flowers on it.
Jeans and boots: same.

I found this Liz Claiborne grey stretchy top while I was there also. It's so comfy and since we're not heading out on any errands today I decided to track down some old yoga pants from eons ago and have a cozy day :)

A new place to apply lipstick

2011-01-14T13:34:00.004-06:00

Ok, i know this isn't a real exciting post but it's little things like this that make me happy :)

For months I'd told Travis I wanted new plates and glasses and to spiff up the glass front cabinets in our kitchen.

Once I figured out what it would take I started stalking our local freecycle for mirrors-BIG mirrors.

I LOOOVE freecycle!

So here's our cabinet for glasses.

Not sure why I was into cobalt blue when we got married. Lots of mismatched sets with odd ones broken over the years. So many of these we didn't even use. Those boxes to take to Goodwill were HEAVY. lol.

Out with the blue!

Here we are with nice new clear bubble glasses that should never go out of style.

And the plates...blue. Loads of obvious chips on the edges.

Plastic mismatched kiddie plates.

Hmm. ick. Remember-glass front cabinets?

Ahhhhhhh. MUCH better!

For Christmas my mother in law bought me the plates and bowls I've been eyeballing for a year.

So much more restful to the eye.

Peek a boo!

Did you forget I mentioned mirrors? Yay!

I was lucky enough to find a couple people renovating and getting rid of those big old plain frameless mirrors on freecycle...just a little trim here and there on them w/ a glasscutter and they slid right behind the shelving.

Love them!

D+M

2011-01-13T13:05:00.003-06:00

Oh, that Chloe. What a goof. She was laughing and carrying on in the shower the other night and says hey mom? come here-and bring your camera-lol.

So I'm like hmmmm?? ook?

She was making all sorts of goofy things with their spiderman foamy spray soap stuff and had written this on the wall.

D+M=Heart

I said can you translate that for me please?

*sighhhhhh* (she's 9 but acts 13)

It says Dad plus Mom equals LOVE-get it?

awwwwww

So yes, I did need my camera afterall.

WIWW

2011-01-11T21:42:00.004-06:00

It's been awhile since i"ve participated in the WIWW that Lindsey has going on over on her blog...I only remembered a couple times this past week (and mainly so I could show my friend Kim the shirt she sent and a new sweater-lol)

Shirt-gift (Target)

Cami-Target

Bootcut jeans-H&M (consignment shop)

snowboots-Target

Grey wrap cardigan-JCP

grey cami-Old Navy (goodwill)

Skinny jeans-Old Navy

Black boots-Old Navy

I really don't shop that much at Old Navy-lol.

Anyhow, not real exciting...but we've had like 6 inches of snow all week and nowhere to go.

(honestly-I wish we didn't still have to get out to go to school but they never close our schools due to snow) so beyond the coming and going for school I'm sitting here working on taxes all week. Why am I not in sweats? lol

He's the coolest

2011-01-11T14:30:00.003-06:00

So this is the latest fashion statement in our house for the past week.

I wish I knew what was up with him squeezing his eyes closed and shifting his jaw lately with pictures. It's hilarious.

And here is how he usually pulls off the look.

Pretty snazzy, eh? ;)

Chloe's dream come true

2010-12-29T13:40:00.002-06:00

Chloe has begged me for years to have her ears pierced. I've been saying that she can when I feel she was responsible enough to take care of them herself and be diligent about cleaning,etc without me staying on her about it.

(But if I have to admit it: part of me wouldn't let her do it younger than I did-weird? Maybe...but I can live with that)

waiting......

After the first one.....

I love the continuous shutter on my camera
Click*click*click

She did SO much better than I expected. Only made a couple funny faces and that was it.

No tears-yea!

Some pretty little cz chips to show for her bravery. And at Target today she beelined it for the earring section and found a cute Christmas set for next year-her first danglies. Teeny little jingle bells and snowflakes. (and on clearance now dontchaknow) ;)

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T15:32:00.000-06:00

From our home to yours

image from here

Floridians in the cold

2010-12-09T14:44:00.006-06:00

I mentioned before that Trav's aunt and uncle came to visit for the week leading up to Thanksgiving. Well, the week or 2 leading up to their visit not only did the 24 hour flu hit our house but headcolds did as well. Which to an asthmatic mom and 4 yr old it hit us the hardest and ended badly for moi seeing as I had an adverse reaction to an antibiotic I'd never been on before.

* That makes Thanksgiving F.U.N. when you can hardly eat or stand up straight d/t the pain...

Anyyyhow...I am finally feeling pretty darn good and will end up having to backtrack a bit to get all caught up.

They got lucky the day we chose to hit Abe Lincoln's home and walk around downtown it was a record high of over 70 that day. Not too shabby for Illinois at Thanksgiving.

{we're paying for it now!}

No, I don't let my kids run the streets...the neighborhood is blockaded.

Chloe and Bernie outside of Lincoln's home.

Lincoln's home. I don't think I'd been there since a 5th grade field trip.

I had to take a picture of the kitchen inside the house. Amazing how different things are now.

The fence outside. Had to get a few shots of the kids out there.

It was really so pretty out! if only the sun would have peeked out for a bit.

Too bad our last name isn't Robinson!

This was Lincoln's neighbor I guess.

Reflection on the walk downtown. I regret not getting the whole group in it now :(

{Maybe I couldn't think because I was lugging 40 extra lbs on my hip at the time...}

Down by the old state capital there are these bronze statues of Lincoln and his family. The kids are forever posing and wanting photos each time we go by there so they can see themselves growing against the statues...

The plan was to hit the Feed Store for lunch but sadly, they were closed :(

Bummer-love that place!

We ended up at Cafe' Moxo-a first time for me.

Note to self: don't go to a downtown cafe' on a Saturday right before they close-they'll be out of everything you try to order-lol.

Those were the best chocolate chip cookies though!

More photos tomorrow...

Scenes from an open house

2010-12-08T12:37:00.003-06:00

This past Friday I held my (1st annual?) jewelry open house.

I was surprised at how many people came and found multiple Christmas gifts!

I decided to try an "island" formation to walk around. I'm not sure if I'm sold on that idea now... It felt like I had much less than when I'm set up how I am at art fairs...But it worked. I may tweak that in the future though.

A few different views...

All of my rooms got the switcharoo. The dining table moved to the emptied playroom. Photo taken before all of the wine came out ;)

Can you see a little hand resting on the corner of the table just waiting to snatch another cookie?

I decided to try something a little different and "group" like things together.
I usually just use the earrings stands as filler in gap areas but was told at the last show people didn't notice them as much. I grouped these and just as I suspected: they look like little gravestones all lined up-LOL.
(at least to me they do)

A few necklaces....

I worked alot this fall with heat treated copper and loved the results. I made quite a few copper pieces and they flew out of here. This was all I had left at the end of the evening. With silver prices at a crazy high right now I think working more with mixed metals is in my immediate future.

I want to thank each of you who came that night. You made the evening a success and made me happy to see so many friendly faces in our home :)

Thank you *Thank you *Thank you!

We "shook hands with Lincoln"

2010-11-20T21:56:00.003-06:00

A little snippet from today~

Travis' Aunt and Uncle from Florida are visiting for Thanksgiving. Today we visited Lincoln's home and walked downtown to a cafe for lunch. The tour guide says by holding the rails on the stairs we were shaking hands with Lincoln...umkay...
Anyhow, I grabbed this shot of Chloe under a little bridge on the wayto lunch.

*love it*

Random Wednesday

2010-11-17T09:30:00.002-06:00

*Been taking an online "class" to teach me more about my camera.
*The above shot was my fave from this week's aperature assignment.
*My 4 yr old is trying to play WII right now-a little unsucessfully i might add.
*Chloe just called to inform me we forgot about picture retake day.oops.
*It's her first day back after being sick.
*I'm sick of everyone being sick.
*I think I'm getting sick.
*I'm sick of getting 9 allergy shots each week.
*I think I'll get out of shots today since I'm feeling like I'm getting sick.
*yay?
*Made some cuuuuute pendants in metals lab last night.
*Little things like that make me happy.
*Been readying the house for Christmas.
*Getting ready for a holiday open house for my jewelry.
*Stressing out over little things for the open house.
*Trying to let go of those little things. Not easy but I'm working on it.
*Excited that Trav's aunt and uncle from Florida will be here on Friday for Thanksgiving!
*Stressing out over my hosue since they're coming-lol.
*Again, trying to let that go.
*My coffee was perfect this morning :) But now I need to brush my teeth again.
*I have a visitation to attend tonite that will be very hard to go to.
*I know they're all very hard but it's for a child.
*I need to go hug my boys now

Not my family photos-for once!

2010-11-10T14:04:00.004-06:00

About a month ago I was asked by my friend & neighbor to take some photos of her children.

I was honored!

With her permission I thought I'd share a few of my fave's...

Above: probably my absolute favorite.

Below: Mr. tree monkey-finally got him to do some great smiles. There may or may not have been talk about boogers or something else gross...lol.

Thre's just something about this shot-I just love it.

Sigh...the sunflare-the smile...He was loving on mama.

The chalkboard says it all ;)

*Squeel*

{sunflare!}
I love when it happens like this!

I think this was one of mom's favorites. Her sweet patient look-she's a great big sis.

It was so much fun running over to the park to capture these (and about 500+ more!)

Panther Creek

2010-11-07T19:10:00.003-06:00

I have a few shots from Friday's sale at Panther Creek for the medical society fundraiser.

Last year I was set close to the entrance along the main area. This year I was in the center circular area of the room. Unfortunately for those of us in the center-there was only 1 way in and out and we felt some avoided the area or just didn't realise we were there. Bummer.

I was thrilled that I had repeat customers from last year and had great conversations and caught up.

The "wish" necklace from my last post was one of the first sales. Snatched right up by a wonderful woman who came back to chat with me a couple more times before we left. I love meeting new people and hearing stories of their lives...

Travis made my new earring tree-a triple decker. I think where I set it got a little lost. Front and center from now on I believe.

I can't count how many comments I had on my little tabletop trees. "I don't suppose you made them and they're for sale?" I kept hearing-lol. Nope, you can find some at Gordmans...

I was so happy to find my new little silver tray! A score at a second hand store. I wanted something vertical to put little incidentals on. It worked great for my pins and little pendants :)

Tonite I've got to work on my inventory sheet and choose which goodies get dropped off over at the Art Association tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to their preview sale on Friday evening. The sale starts Sat for the public.

Sneaky peek

2010-11-04T17:25:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow I'll be participating in an art fair held at our local Panther Creek Country Club. Last year was my first time to have a table there.

I'm really looking forward to it. A good friend has a table close-by and my friend Cindy will be coming to assist me again this year. It should be a good time.

Here's just a couple shots I took yesterday--bunches of sterling and copper earrings all lined up...

A simple stamped pendant I whipped up the other night-so sweet!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-04T12:38:00.004-05:00

A bit late on my halloween pictures...a bit late on alot!

I had to take a break and work on items for an upcoming show.

Without further adu here are the kiddos this year...

Gabe's owl costume I made from scratch and it turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!

Nana found some retro thread in a trunk in the basement and thought Chloe could probably fit in them. (nothing a little glue gun won't fix!)

She was a cute little hippie.

I still can't believe my mother in law wore this. Ever.

Sawyer's outfit I'm ashamed to say didn't have any thought put into it but he sure was cute anyway! The train conductor hat and scarf pulled from the play clothes and smudgey little cheeks...When he first saw a picture of himself he freaked out! "oh noooooo! dir-dy!!"
lol.
Ya, he doesn't lke to be dirty. He's that kid.

We still have WAY too much candy sitting around here
{calling my name...}
I've gotta get rid of it- before it lands on my butt.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween.

Around the house yesterday...

2010-10-14T11:16:00.004-05:00

Crisp fall leaves are are starting to fall in our front yard~

Sawyer looks around to match the leaves with the trees and tries to reattach them~

I love the crunching sound when I walk outside~
{but my allergies hate this time of year!}

Color in the backyard~

View from the front yard pointing up~

The biggest spider I've ever found at our house has taken up residence on our porch...

eep

What's in front of me when at the computer~

Just look at how much Chloe's face is changing!

Amazing...

What I see when I'm torching~

Pretty colors all organized~

The retro halloween decor Chloe dug up in Nana's basement~

Cracks me up-it's all over the house...

One of my favorite antiques~but it scares the bejeezus out of the kids.

Flip doll-it has Grandma on the other side of the Big Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood is at the other end when you flip it over. I thought it would be fun to set out for H'Ween...

A huge vat of veggie beef soup w/ a crusty loaf of italian bread for dinner...

mmmmmmmm...

It was a great day for being outside, leaf piles, having friends over and just chilly enough for soup to be perfect!

Craft sale

2010-10-13T09:38:00.003-05:00

On Saturday I was in a large craft fair at a church here in town.

Unfortunately for us who participated it was gorgeous outside and there simply too many vendors.

Oh well, live and learn.

I can use all the practice I can to haul and set up on my own...and I was still pretty puny feeling from being sick last week-NO FUN!

Looking at these pictures tells me what I need to change... (ah-hem...tableclothes!!!)

Sewing slipcovers is on my agenda this winter!

Did notice my new addition? My gal finally got her facelift!

{more on her makeover another day-love how she turned out!}

Up next is the indoor country club sale I was in last year at Panther Creek.

Working on steamlining my displays for an 8 foot table for that...That's alot to fit in a small space!

He's got his daddy's rhythm

2010-10-12T14:45:00.003-05:00

This is what I get to see when the ice cream man is in the vicinity.

I can't tell you how much I love this goofy little dance of his that he breaks into. I really need to get it on video-but for now a fast shutter speed will do.

The move above is my fave.Flinggggg...

Oh, this one too-where he ends up standing on his head w/ his foot pointed to the sky...I just caught it too early.

Chloe just shakes her head and laughs. I said well, wouldn't the world be a little more fun if everyone could just bust a move at a song they like no matter where they are?

WIWW

2010-09-29T13:10:00.005-05:00

It's Wednesday already? I still thought it was Tuesday until I saw Lindsey's WIWW blog post-lol. Linking up with her once again.

Only took 3 pics this week...

black shirt-Target

brown little sweater thing over it-Target

Jeans-Banna Republic

Flipflops-Reef

hair down *shock!*

Eh-hemmmm...please don't mention my naked lamp behind me...I'm desperately trying to find a cute shade for it that I like...

Cami-Old Navy

Sweater-DKNY

Jeans-same-Banna republic

Same sandals

Necklace- made by me

Awhile back I saw some earrings made by Cassie Donlen that were so cute in this style and thought well, that would make a cute pendant in larger beads! I love it :)

Walked/jogged to school and a nice long walk with the boys taking the long way home...I don't think you care about this outfit ;)

I did make an attempt yesterday and doing somethig with that poor table behind me there...a few fall things. UGH-I've GOT to find a lampshade-and figure out a way to HIDE that lamp cord!! lol. It's driving me nuts now...Maybe by next weeks pictures it will have changed???

Boys and trucks

2010-09-24T09:50:00.002-05:00

Our next-door neighbor's friend pulled up with this awesome old truck he had rebuilt.

It's a monster!

Gabe was playing outside with his neighbor friend and they were all over that thing! I had to run in to get my camera once I realised it could actually be a really cool backdrop...

Goofballs.
I think the pictures turned out really cute!
I may have to frame that 2cd one for Gabe's room...

Garage sale SCORE!

2010-09-21T10:14:00.005-05:00

So totally worth the trip!!

I've been so sick for the last week and a half. Only today am I starting to feel a little energetic.

Saturday though I forced myself to hit a few garage sales on the way to the art fair. I'd promised Chloe we could go last week-and I had assumed I'd be feeling better...and I had to go since I'm planning on applying for next year and felt like I had to.

(I know-goofy...)

Anyyyhow, 1/2 way out to this neighborhood sale I was regretting leaving the house in a bad way. I just wanted to pull over and sleep. I was ready to call it a day and just go home after this last house when I spotted the antique printer's cabinet drawer..........the lady was packing up and it was just sitting there, leaning against the table leg...taunting me.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!

Another lady was heading up the drive....I walked faster-I knew she was heading for it too!

(I was wrong thankfully!)

I spotted a 5 on it...assuming she had $50 on it and that's why it hadn't sold...nope, $5.

Holy cow.

{scoop!}

The lady was saying oh just make offers on anything we're closing up-

Points at the drawer I'm clutching with my puny bit of strength that my adrenaline had given me-

"You can have that for $3" she says...

I don't think I've even paid so fast for something in my life-lol.

(I scored that antique fan at a flea market for $3 a few weeks back too!)

This is what I am envisioning:

photo:ali edwards

I have a few bits of things that had belonged to my great grandmothers...earrings, a broach...old photos from when she was young...old letters I could copy bits from...and if I dig enough from family I know I could come up with more...

I can't wait to start filling it :)

Getting creative with the kiddos

2010-09-16T13:20:00.003-05:00

{When the mood strikes} I pull all the paints out and let the kids go crazy.

The antique dining room table is where it's at. Trav can't be home-he'd have a heart attack-lol.

Taping down the newspaper this time didn't even help. sigh-oh well, it scrubbed off...

(he was never the wiser hehe)

Anyhow~I ran across this project while reading Meg's blog and the boys LOVED it!

Who knew streamers were so expensive? pfft. Oh well we have many birthday parties it can be used for-right?

My fingers were covered in paint so I wasn't able to take better pictures...

But you get the idea...cut the paper plate in 1/2 and paint rainbows on each side (the backs)

You can even blend colors if you want-lol.

Glue the streamers to the insides and staple together and string her up!

Our dining room windows are so perty now-lol.
Chloe came home from school actually jealous that we'd done this without her...

Maybe when I feel normal again I'll drag it all back out...
Jeez-Pharyngitis, sinus infection and double ear infection. This is for the BIRDS. I'm soooo thankful the crazy fever that hung around is finally gone but I feel so whooped. Can't WAIT to feel better and appreciate the normal every day again!!

WIWW

2010-09-15T13:53:00.003-05:00

Linking up with the Pleated Poppy.

I've not been participating in WIWW lately...but I can only take pictures of myself in jean shorts and tshirts so many times...

Summer isn't a great time for creative dressing around here-it's just too HOT!

{oh, and Lindsey-you're totally right-I keep the camera in front of me for the same reason! lol) It did finally cool down tho and I was happy to start layering up again.

sweater: Charlotte Russe

cami: Old Navy

jeans: Levi's

flipflops:Reef

necklace: made by me(but no closeup...)

I've been soooo sick since Friday! So just the one pic this week...No pictures of me in pj pants and Trav's old tshirts! lol. Hopefully I'll be feeling human again and will want to join the living soon.

Friday thoughts

2010-09-10T10:34:00.003-05:00

link

*I saw chickens wandering around a neighbors front yard this morning on the way to school. Was a strange sight. We are not in the country.

*Wearing a sweater for the first time this season. Yes, it's grey.

*Gabe loved his first day of preK yesterday.

*Went to Sam's Club this morning EARLY. I hate when the front door lady insists on seeing my business card better to prove I do have a business (because I have kids with me I assume? who knows...)

*Feeling restless lately. Change of season? Needing to create and not knowing what I want to make.... Hate this feeling. I feel like I wander around during naptime trying to figure out what I should make and nothing gets accomplished.

*Speaking of, I need to get busy for 3 upcoming shows and a possible 4th all Oct/Nov.
{Nothing like a little pressure...}

*I'm on my 4th day of back to writing down/counting calories. I am finally not feeling like I want to eat everything in sight.

*Along with counting I've been walking daily and going to bed early. The sluggishness I've been feeling is starting to lift already...Wow.

*Excited for a Mom/Chloe day! After her crack-of-dawn soccer game tomorrow just me and Chloe are heading to St Louis to the Clayton Art Fair to wander around and she can create in the kids tent. We'll hit the Galleria while there and a few other boutiques...

*Sunday is the Carillon Art Fair. I'll be running over there to soak up more creativity. Maybe surrounding myself this weekend with art is exactly what my heart needs...

Today

2010-09-09T13:39:00.001-05:00

He was so excited!

Backpack on for an hour prior to the bus.

Pacing the yard chasing birds to kill time.

Huge hug and a big fat kiss as he climbed the bus steps.

*sniff*

A few minutes of peace

2010-09-03T08:45:00.004-05:00

I was able to sleep in a little. Travis took the day off (to have 15 tons of dirt delivered-more on that project later) so he walked the kids to school this morning.

My littlest monkey

Able to make the bed at a leasurely pace, able to remember to brush my OWN teeth, come down and kiss them all goodbye before helping myself to a nice hot cup of creamy coffee and sit and flip through a few blogs and catch up on emails.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

This will last for maybe another 10 minutes then I'm on my own again...but this sure has been a nice morning so far. Hopefully starting the day like this will help me to center myself, organize my day, be a more patient mom and be more productive...

{I can hope, right?}

I'm still trying to find that perfect balance~what do YOU do that creates balance in your life?

A walk around the state fair~

2010-09-02T10:05:00.005-05:00

I ended up taking a little blog break. I do have way too much to say-lol-yet just can't make myself sit and upload photos and organise my thoughts. Maybe back to school has something to do with that. We're all just trying to get back into a new groove.

So, I'd mentioned I was going to see Blondie! My old friend, Shannon, drove a couple hours to hit the fair with me and see the show. Cheap Trick was to play too-I'd seen them before as well and are awesome. :)

But before the show we had to walk around and eat and sightsee.
No, I did not eat any alligator on a stick.
(eta: i just noticed the look on the alligator's face...looks like he's grotting his teeth and sweating-lolllll)

Hmm...the skies are looking a bit funny...but the lights sure look pretty against the dark sky!

The giant slide-a staple at our fair.

As we say it :Fried WHATTTT?? (said with a southern accent :))
hmm-fried snickers??

Now in the grandstand...still not liking the look of those skies.

Debby Harry takes the stage dressed in a see thru tulle skirt and theigh highs.

I think I calculated her age at around 65?

Wonder if my mother in law would ever dress like that? {LOL}

Just sayin-they're bout the same age. hehe...

Pic from the screen. Took Chloe's camera and the zoom was rotten.

Me and Shannon after they forced everyone high up into the grandstand due to rain.

That's rain on my boob. I did not dribble beer. lol

Bummer......
And our view after we moved up high and they kicked Blondie off the stage due to the crazy lightning and rain.

We hung out with Shannon's friend and sipped beer, sat back and chatted and watched the massive waterfall over the stage roof for an hour til they finally said ok, ya'll-everyone leave-the show won't be on.......boo!

So we tracked down some pretty black garbage bags (no pics!lol) and meandered thru the rain back to the car.

The show-what we were able to see-was really good. Blondie sounded great and some of their new music was actually very good.

Treasury

2010-08-25T12:33:00.007-05:00

My bangle bracelet was featured in a treasury!

So I'm not skilled at doing a full screen shot-this will have to do...

Unfortunately I can't get the link to work to view it any better...oh well...

This was my first treasury on Etsy to included on (that I know of!) so it's pretty exciting! :)

The Spastic Worm

2010-08-23T12:46:00.003-05:00

Chloe's alter ego has been dubbed "the spastic worm" by her father.

And rightly so. I've never seen anything like it.

You take 1 part hormonal 9 year old...

Add in some hair that won't go back in clips just right...

And end up with some legs and arms flailing around like a crazed worm.
Can anyone tell she's gritting her teeth about ready to rip that paper?

I actually have all 3 looking and smiling at once! Too bad her smile isn't very authentic-lol.

Oh.....she's trying harder...
She really is excited about school-trust me!

Ok, much better. ;)

Thrilled once we reached the school...here is her teacher this year.

And waiting in line to go in.

Gabe will start preK in a couple weeks. I sure hope his first day goes better!

I can't wait to hear how she likes her class this year. -I remember 4th grade very fondly-LOVED it-great memories...I hope she likes her new teacher and the group of kids she ended up with!

The Tide is High........

2010-08-20T12:38:00.004-05:00

Meep!

Just a little hint to where I'm heading tonite!

Soooooo excited! I'll be meeting up with my friend from way back in the day.

Shannon and I were great friends in jr high and high school. We reconnected after almost 20 years (gulp) on facebook.

Since we attended our first concert togther-(Eddie Money-7th grade-my dad took us then stood back by himself so we could feel cool and grown up) at the State Fair we decided last year to meet up and see Heart and the Bangles. We had a great time and are starting a new tradition it seems...

We'll also see Cheap Trick.....Report more tomorrow!

Ants in my pants

2010-08-19T11:31:00.003-05:00

I haven't been able to get to the torch in awhile. Kids home with summer=not much beading. When I'm unable to create freely I find myself goinga little crazy and pacing around the house looking for ways to change things up around here. I end up painting rooms, rearranging furniture, trying new recipes,etc.

The other day I walked past the antique cabinetry we had built into our kitchen and realised I cannot stand how it looks (inside) It's become a catch-all. I'm posting pictures to shame myself into doing something about it.

My view from atop a barstool...

The drawers hold phone books, batteries, table linens...

Lower cabinets hold TP, paper towels, paper plates and cups, party supplies...diapers and wipes.

Exciting.

All accross the top I have my grandmother's china (1 of the 2 sets of hers) I anted it away from kid fingers-yet you can't really see it up there. Need to come up with a way to display it better!

The right side-basket of school papers on the bottom that all start to fall out when you open it.
Cookbooks.

My favorite picture of my grandparents. She's very petite and he was extremely tall.

So cute.

Vase made my Chloe

One of my favorite pics of my grandmother and her family when she was young. They sang on the radio. (she is 3rd from the right in the back) This was stage makeup-my great-grandmother didn't always have blacked out teeth-lol.

More random pics-Chloe when she was little, my mother in law when she did baton twirling and me on our wedding day...dried roses Travis gave me roughly 15 yrs ago.

Pottery Chloe made in class a few years back.
Baby photo of my grandpa.

Wine spinner and my snotty egg seperator-lol

My cookbook mess and junk Chloe throws in there.

School papers-can you believe I actually went thru and threw a ton away? this is what I am keeping-yikes. Need to transfer to a box and get ready for school to start next week.

Ok, so my quandry: what should I do with this space? Obviously it ended up being a place to stash picture frames (which unfortunately you can't really see or notice them when the glass doors are closed) and other odds and ends.....

Do I take the doors off? Do I line the walls behind with mirror? Do I make the whole thing into a china cabinet? A photo gallery? Cover the glass and turn it into a pantry?

What would YOU do in this space? I feel like it could be a great space but I just can't seem to figure out how to utilize it......anyone have some great ideas???

Help! lol

Today~

2010-08-12T13:59:00.001-05:00

Just a little something I came across and snapped a pic of the other day...

Dreams?

2010-08-11T21:02:00.003-05:00

Around 4 am I woke to the sound of pitterpats down the hallway...Next thing I knew a short little head peeked up over Travis, scurried up and over and dove under the covers in between us.

Sucking his thumb he laid there whimpering for quite awhile. Poor guy... Looks like he's growing up and starting to maybe have some bad dreams. Breaks my heart.

Which way to go?

2010-08-10T13:05:00.002-05:00

Have you ever heard of geocaching?

I only heard about it a couple months ago and it sounds really cool. The kids were all psyched to try it. Unfortunately I think it's a necessity to have a handheld GPS device. I thought we could go by the clues and maps online but no such luck...

We set out on the trail at 9:30am with 94 degrees temps already. Mistake! Loads of bugspray thank goodness because the woods were full of nasty mosquitos.

Then we went searching a different location at the park where a few statues lie but still-nothing. We stopped to pay tribute to the Angel of Hope as we always do when we're at the park since our son's name is on it.

And....of coarse the prerequisite picture of someone goofing it up but totally being himself. lol. This is the best one I got of the group. Our friend, Kate, is staying with us for a few days...

A Little somethin'

2010-08-07T14:15:00.005-05:00

For me.

So many people have been ordering this style necklace from me lately that I decided I think I need one too.

A mixture of copper, brass and sterling with all my kiddos names stamped on them. It jingles and moves all around and I find myself constantly playing with it.

I*Love*it.

recess

2010-08-06T11:13:00.002-05:00

Things have been a bit quiet around these parts. Busy with bored kids but too hot to let them get out and run.

I've been working on a stack of custom necklaces and remodeling my old hair salon into our new living room. Travis has our entire backyard torn up laying paths of stones and running the gutters away from the house. It's constant projects around here.

This was taken the other night~national night out~ our reflections in the firetruck's bumper a minute before they tore out with their siren blaring for an emergency.

Cool find!

2010-07-16T15:53:00.002-05:00

Trav was obviously in a nostaglic mood at his moms the other night and started digging through old boxes of his stuff from his childhood.

Who remembers this guy!? I insisted he come home with us.

It was one of my favorite games when i was a kid. The date stamped in the plastic says 1979.

Nifty.

Oh the tongue of concentration...(Gabe)

And Sawyer looking like he's about to do something wrong.

It been alot of fun doing something I spent hours playing when I was little.

They seem to like it a little bit too :)

WIWW

2010-07-14T09:30:00.002-05:00

Another couple from when it was chillier...

Dress: Old navy

Leggings: Target

Sandals: Reef

Posy Pin: The Pleated Poppy

Shirt: Old Navy

Jean: OLD

Sandals : Reef

Running errands...

Layered top: Kohls

Shorts: Kohls Apt9 (consignment)

Sandals: (new!) Payless

Wax seal necklace: made by moi

Morning at the park...

Top: Old navy (garage sale)

Shorts: Calvin Klein (TJMaxx)

Sandals: payless

necklace: wax seal again

Boat ride and cookout at my Aunt and Uncles fr my grandmother's birthday...

Top: TJMaxx

Shorts: Kohls Apt9 again

Reef sandals

Lazy day cleaning the house and watering flowers...

Shirt-Kohls (was nice and blousey after having Sawyer-now too big)

Shorts Apt9 again

Linking again with The Pleated Poppy :)

Have a great day!

Orderly

2010-07-13T13:55:00.005-05:00

Today: Happiness comes from organization. Little rows of lined up pliers and a fun new spinny home for soldering supplies on my workbench. :)

Rows and rows of colorful glass beads in new homes~newly organized by style now instead of color.

{a mind-numbing job I've got to say}

There are at least 2 plastic boxes of beads still waiting for me to help find their new space.

A few pretty cabs waiting for their purpose in life....

I'm not sure what's gotten into me. The lack of "me" time to create has me itching for having everything orderly and easy to find. I'm been an organizing fool the past week or so.

I can feel ideas brewing inside of me-bursting at the seams and no time to release them right now. I will know when the time is right...so for now I will be painting with the kids and doodling my ideas in my sketchpad and will be ready when it's time.

Our way home...

2010-07-10T15:21:00.005-05:00

On our last morning we woke early. The car was already packed so it was nice and stressfree.

I had just enough time before the kids woke up to head down to the walk at the end of our condo unit. Just me, my coffee and my notebook. I did my morning pages and sketched this scene in my journal. It was so peaceful. Just me and a man on the dock fishing nearby.

The most gorgeous tree dripping with spanish moss. Somewhere in Georgia outside of a Taco Bell~just after the sweet lady working there sugared the kids up with lots of free samples of their new icee things. I had to practically jog in place under the tree to keep the fireants from running up my legs.

(*bad experience when I was a kid with those suckers-ugh)

And here we are in Paducah, Kentucky. We stopped in since we were running good on time and kept seeing all these signs for the historic and arts districts. This was in the street by the Riverwalk.

Wandering the historic district...

Such a cool building-it spanned the entire block long.

Sunday afternoon~we are all starved and were so lucky to find a place open. Wow-this is someplace I'd definately go to again!!

The historic plaque

Ever since we were in New Orleans we've had to try other muffelettas when we run across them. I can safely say this is the best one this far north of Louisiana that we've had.

YUMMMMMMM!

(I wouldn't have taken it's picture if it wasn't awesome!)

And the adjoining bakery....just look what was screaming at me from the windows...

A drive looping throughout the streets in the historic arts area. Some of the coolest historic homes! All with working art studios and galleries...I heard they had done some special funding or incentives for artists to buy up the houses in the area to bring that area back to life.

As we walked around window shopping we kept finding all these neat short little alleyways that had cool finishes and the best light. Not at all like the alleys we have here in town. I lucked out with a pretty picture of Chloe-the boys weren't as cooperative.

Ok, so that was the longest run of vacation posts ever-lol. Thanks for hanging in there.

The vacation that never ends

2010-07-09T14:51:00.004-05:00

Wouldn't that be awesome though? The never ending vacation...

Anyhow, here we are 2 months later and I'm still posting vacation pics! Only one post after this one to go!

These are from our last day. This is Nugget. He came along from Chloe's 3rd grade classroom to journal where he visited. Here he is hangin at Sand Key.

Gabe was much more confortable on the sand than in the water. He LOVED digging and building.
Shells, shells, shells.....

I want to do something with this picture-just not sure what yet...
Cropped and framed big over our bed? Maybe?

All of us as the sun goes down.

Trav and Sawyer

Sunset on the last night is always a little sad.

Everyone had to have sand names, of coarse.

Someone snuck in this shot.

Sawyer found this deep hole someone had dug and we couldn't get him out. He kept wiggling back down in there and was having a great time so we just let him play.

I'll have one more post with shots from our way home. We stopped in Paducah for lunch-it was a lovely town! We got a few good pics there...Until tomorrow.......

what i wore wednesday

2010-07-07T12:49:00.005-05:00

A wee bit behind on these...you can tell since it's 90+ degrees here and I couldn't even tell you where my jeans are right now. I was thrown off by vacation-so these are the pics I took just before Florida and didn't have a chance to post...I'll catch up soon.

Sweater-consignment shop

Cami-Old Navy

Jeans-so old-who knows? They sport a big hole on the leg now though.

Sandals-Reef

Top-Old Navy

Cami-Old Navy

Necklace-bought in Greece on vacation 10 years ago.

closeup of the pendant

Top-Kohls (I've taken to making buns on my shirts with hair bands when they're too blousey-lol)
Jeans-Levis
Necklace-made by me

Closeup of the necklace

Blue/white striped top-Old Navy ( this is another shirt I've decided I can do without now that I look at this-lol)
Old jeans (I think I want to make a fun/funky patch for the new hole) You can see it started there on my left leg...

Shirt-Old Navy

Cami-Old Navy

Jeans-Levis

Sandals-Reef

Posy Pin-The Pleated Poppy

Cardigan Top-The Limited

Cami-Kohls

Jeans-Old

Sandals-Reef

Beaded scarf-Found in Chloe's room :) hehe

Closeup of scarf and earrings-a fave pair in high school-many moons ago. I love that they look like little lanterns :)

Hippo

2010-07-06T13:54:00.001-05:00

Bet you always wanted to see hippo nostrils up close and personal :)

Artist market~week 2

2010-06-27T11:44:00.002-05:00

My second week of the Artist Market was yesterday.

I decided to set up my tent in a different configuration than the week before to experiment..I'm not sure which way I like better yet. Each had their advantages/disadvantages.

There was quite a bit of foot traffic concidering how HOT it got. I met lots of nice people, had quite a few sales and was asked to wholesale in a gorgeous boutique.

Now I feel I can finally sit back and breathe!! That was a busy couple of weeks! Unfortunately yesterday ended in a migraine-either from the extreme heat or the lack of allergy meds. I'm just so glad it didn't hit full force until last night!!!

Travis has been out jackhammering our driveway and has found a driveway underneath our driveway-that's always a fun find-not. It's been raining on and off all morning so we may run to the video store and just hunker down and relax today...hope everyone has a great Sunday! :)

First outdoor art fair

2010-06-20T11:02:00.007-05:00

Let's see how much my van can hold without bursting, mmmmk? Eep-I didn't think the tent was going to fit. We had to rearrange three times and slide a seat over to wiggle it in.

Here's my tent all set up. I ran out of room for a few busts and rearranged the set up a couple times to make room for my checkout area. I think I'll switch something around next week and see if there's any better way to arrange it all to fit. Overall I thought it was ok though? :)

Table shot

How about we take a little tour from the back table working our way up to the front, shall we?
Travis made my pendant board...

My funny little easter egg tree turned keychain hanger.

Travis made me my copper earring holder-love it. I got tons of comments on that thing-lol.

I only wish now I'd had him build it 2 or 3 tiered...

Maybe I can talk him into another one? You reading this, honey?

Moving towards the inner corner...some glass rods shown for people who don't understand that the beads are actually handmade by these rods of glass.

Screened frame for pins and extra earrings. Burlap bracelet rolls.

Checkout area

The front. I love how my glass cases turned out! They were these silly candle holder things I bought a couple years ago-I think I may have actually blogged about them when i found them. Glass was restored, metal painted, foam was cut in wedges and slipcovered in burlap and necklaces easily pinned into place-I had many compliments from other jewelers on them.

The framed photos of past custom work actually was a bigger hit than I expected and had quite a few custom orders from people already thinking ahead for Christmas. Christmas already? Eeep. that reminds me I was thinking about home parties for the holidays. Now all of a sudden I feel overwhelmed-lol.

I'm signed up to do the same show next weekend as well. It was nice to have a smaller venue to be able to concentrate on the set up and tear down timing as well as tweaking presentation. Next week I plan to play with the set up again as well as more outdoor/close-up's of my jewelry to get any extras added into my Etsy shop. :)

Random Friday

2010-06-18T13:37:00.002-05:00

My camera is all packed up. These were taken a couple of weeks ago after our bad flash flood here in town. Our yard was still waterlogged-so once the sprinkler came on it turned into a mudpit-Chloe and her friend had a blast going down a wet slide landing in a pond or swinging on the rope seeing how high they can splash. *Trav had fun scrubbing the side of the garage after that...: headache today
: soooo humid out
: fed the geese today and walked the trail by Trav's work
: the sunroom is lined with totes for the art fair tomorrow.
: Can't believe how much stuff I have/need for it.
: it's going be hot tomorrow. bad
: I want to go buy a battery operated fan tonite somewhere

: visited my dad and stepmom this morning. he may have refractured his pelvis :(

: it's going to be a long summer for him

: i reallllly need to vacuum

: hoping to go to a little art thingie at Norb Andy's tonite

: trav's taking the kids swimming after work so I can finish packing and wrapping up loose ends

Kids art projects week 1

2010-06-14T13:13:00.004-05:00

I've had the urge to paint lately. Not quite sure what it is...I painted in school- a ton. Why don't I ever do it anymore? Honestly-to the point that the other night at a stop light I gasped at how gorgeous the sky was and tried picturing the colors I'd use to paint it...Guess that should tell me something. (?)

So I saw this blog post about weekly art projects with your kids for the summer and got inspired-I could do this! Chloe's been talking about signing up for art camp-maybe she'd get a kick out of trying some new ideas.

Our finished pieces laid out to dry.

Gabey's-not bad for a 3 yr old with no help

Chloe's friend, Shaylee, who had spent the night

Chloe's

Mine

Chloe's talking about how she wants to start over and make her petals brighter-I said that's the beauty of watercolor-just put some more right over the top-wahlah! We're going to work on that today. I am envisioning big white mats, black frames and a gallery of bright flowers on the staircase wall.....Wouldn't that be pretty?

These are the blogs for inspiration I found this project through here and here.

They were so easy! Just pencil in a "bee's eye view" of a flower, trace w/ a sharpie then fill in. They feel very "stained glass" feeling when you're done. Make sure each side is touching the edge or running off...that's it! :) I pulled up Georgia O'Keefe paintings in Google images for the kids to go through before starting to give them some ideas and off they went.

Summer has begun

2010-06-09T14:27:00.003-05:00

And with it comes the emergence (and obsession) of silly bands. Couch cushions all over my living room for sommer saults and forts
Dirt under my fingernails (and mosquito bites!)

All 3 kids wearing birthday hats as unicorn horns and making up unicorn sounds

One summer birthday done-2 to go...I'm not feeling very creative this year and would love to do what we did last year-by combining Gabe and Chloe's in the backyard with neighbor friends. I wonder if she'd let that happen again?

The kids have been playing outside all morning finding roly polys and centipedes to put in the little bug catcher box with neighbors. My legs stink like bug spray and itch. lol. They'll love me in class tonite ;)

Part 4...yep, still working on em!

2010-06-08T14:19:00.006-05:00

Can you tell I got tired of uploading pictures? I needed a little break I suppose.

Anyhow, these are from our day at Busch Gardens. I'll spare you the other 400+ of them and just throw a few on here...

Here are the greeters as we walked in. They had all sorts of stilt characters walking around the place. Gabe was terrified of them.

Our first stop was the wooden roller coaster. I was shocked when Chloe agreed to go on it with me-since she'd never been on one before. I have a feeling she is officially done with roller coasters and is permanently traumatized. Here is our photo immediately afterwards commemorating the event-still a bit scrambled.

I was able to take home a lovely souvenier of it as well. I wn't be riding anymore wooden coasters that's for sure. I spared you the fist-sized bruises on either thiegh. My arm got 10x worse than this.

They loved the splash park they have there...

Nice rules. Once again-me with the signs. Glad they don't want people with diarreah in there-lol.

The bird habitat was so cool! they'd come and land on you and pose for pictures.

Why, hello there!

Gabe was in love with the tiger area.

It's easy to see why-look at this gorgeous creature! Just look at how close I was able to get-with just that piece of glass between us...

Here's another stilt guy-a grasshopper? Gabe was trying to climb up Travis while screaming if I remember correctly while he took our picture.

He was also really into the animal shaped topiaties all around. There were pretty cool. He informed me that we need some in our yard...ummm...ya-I'll get right on that.

Caught the elephants getting baths and a drink from the hose~

Played on some statues~

Got up close and personal with this cute guy...

This one too. How gorgeous is he? I was about 6 inches from his head. Cool, eh?

At the end of the day we found a couple crocs in the water soaking with a little iron fense (with another sort of protective liner stuff inside) around them. Gabe wiggled his finger near the fensing calling him and wouldn't you know that sucker beelined it over-just a few inches away from him? Scared me to death-creepy how it sat there staring at my child. Ick.

And our family pic they always make you pose for when you walk in. lol. Makes me miss my jogging stroller...was stolen last week. :(

That's it for today. Off to start piecing some table slipcovers for my tent. My first outdoor art fair is a week from this Saturday. Eep. Wish me luck.

Today

2010-06-04T10:16:00.001-05:00

How is it possible that two years have passed so quickly? Happy Birthday, Buddy. I couldn't imagine life without you.

Vacation shots-Part 3

2010-05-20T13:23:00.005-05:00

You don't see this sight in the water very often...

This was near where we ate on the water at John's Pass. I just like textures/patinas going on here...
Uncle JR and Aunt bernie loaded the kids up with Bubba Gump gear. How cute is he with his hat turned around? Rosy cheeked boy...

I love all the funny signs you come across down there. We ate outside by the water and boy-those birds were relentless! They attacked the table next to us as soon as the people paid their bill and left. Gabe chased the birds away and the owner said she might just have a job for him...;)

Cute...

The pelican who waited patiently near our table.

Down by the shops Gabe spots a man with a cocketeil riding on his shoulder. (Is that how you spell that?) Anyway-the guy was so nice and goofy and let it crawl all over the kids. Gabe was a bit nervous since he said it was pinching him with it's claws.

The next thing you know the man scoops up the bird and shoves it's head in his mouth!

It shocked Gabe and got a huge belly laugh out of him.

The next morning after breakfast we headed down to the Seabird Sanctuary. We hadn't been there since Gabe was Sawyer's age. He's such an animal lover we knew we'd have to make a trip. Forgot how stinky it is...whew!

This poor little guy.....he's missing his top beak! I wonder what happened to him? We watched the guy with the fish come out to feed and he had to hand feed this guy and help get them in his mouth. :(

The view from the ocean side of the sanctuary. So pretty and calm.

Cutting back through to the parking lot from the beach Chloe and I got a little surprise. Here we are in the bathroom cleaning it out of our shirts and hair.....sigh.

The rest of the day was spent at the beach and pool-resting for our trip to Busch Gardens the next day....

Guess you know what pics will be posted tomorrow...

Our vacation in photos....Part 2

2010-05-18T13:26:00.007-05:00

See what I mean? Fearless. That kid was jumping in so much the water wings went on asap after this. Not that I trust them much but made me feel a smidge better.

Dinnertime before getting dressed for the wedding. Crabby Bill's. Gabe loved the huge crab on the roof and screamed Crabby Billlllllllllllls each time we drove by.

I love whoever thought of resteraunts having crayons on hand....

Gosh, I already miss daily seafood!!

They have a photographer come around and take your picture then charge you an outragious amount to print it in the back room to take home. I asked her while she was at it to use my camera as well. (she made it far away and wonky. little did she know I could fix that...)

Anyhow, here's all 5 of us plus Nana and Uncle Tyler who joined us down there for the wedding.

(*take a good look at Gabe's face-lol)

On to the wedding.....centerpieces of seashells and seaglass.....so pretty.

A really unusual and funky cake they had made. Pineapple too-yummmmmm!

I wish I had taken more pictures of the dessert table...They had an evening dessert reception. Anything you could think of-chocolate covered strawberries, little raspberry cobbler bites, mini key lime pies, mini coffee cake bars....that's only a little...wow.

Helloooooooo white chocolate seashells with graham sand!!!!!
How cool is that-really??!! I had to do a double take. I thought it was only decoration!

Guitar player sat up front to play beforehand and to walk down the aisle...nice touch. Each time I'd go to take his picture he's sit up a little straighter-funny.

Playing with editing pics for Tyler's facebook page-lol.

Me and my gorgeous daughter-who came home all cocoa brown...Can you believe she's only 8? No, I'm not short-she's crazy tall!

Thinking the print on this dress is making me look a little pregnant.....hmmmm. No-I am not.

Our view slightly to the right as they said I do...

Joe and Nicole
(had to grab from this angle since the photog had them busy)

Here are the 5 of us with Nana and Uncle Tyler afterwards again

And an outtake for you as well. Most would come out like this-lol.

Nicole-looking gorgeous with her dad...

Wish I'd gotten a good one of her and Joe.

If I could do our whole wedding thing over I'd do it this way. On the beach at sunset? Perfect weather? Small and intimate? Oh ya-in a heartbeat.

Our vacation in photos....Part 1

2010-05-17T10:12:00.002-05:00

There's going to be quite a few pictures in these next few days. I'll just toss some of the cuter ones on here.

We wento down to the Clearwater Florida area for a family wedding. Travis' cousin, Nicole, got married at sunset on the beach. It was a gorgeous, perfect evening...more on that later...

We stopped in Metropolis to visit Superman.....

Trav and I got makeovers...My head didn't get screwed on straight though.

An interesting picture of all the superman guys. I didn't realise we'd actually had that many.

Passing through Nashville....awful. Most exits were closed w/ police directing on the highway. There were people pulled over on the side here and there taking pictures. Actually SEEING the flooding that Chloe had heard about really hit home for her. Really sad. And I'm sure this area was only the tip of the iceberg.

We had to stop at the gorgeous Tennessee rest area we always stop at. It's on the lake with picnic spots all over and wooded, shady and a great place to let the kids run and stretch their legs.

The night we got into Florida we went to Nicole and Joe's house for their wedding rehearsal that they held in their backyard. This is her father walking her down the "aisle". During rehearsal they married under their grapefruit tree. How cool to have that in your backyard :)

Afterwards we ran over to catch the sunset at the beach across from our condo.

Gabe~starting to collect seashells for his classmates. Love this picture.

Gabe's one of those texture sensitive people so it took awhile for him to warm up to the sand on his feet but then he got over it and had a blast playing in it. Sawyer on the other hand is Mr. Fearless and went crazy out there. He LOVED the sand. Digging, rolling, piling-you name it. Not scared of the water either-unlike Gabe who only got in at the very edge.

Fine by me actually-my heart can only handle 1 fearless little person at a time!

Me and Trav's toes...

More tomorrow!

This is the life...

2010-05-13T21:15:00.002-05:00

Oh yes it is...Wish this tiny moment lasted a wee bit longer but with 3 little ones to chase I'll grab what little I can get!

Back next week with I'm sure what is going to be some very picture heavy posts! See ya then....

On this Earth day~

2010-04-22T15:06:00.004-05:00

I've been wandering around with the camera around my neck grabbing shots of signs of spring. This time of year seems to fly by us and I don't want to forget it. I tend to sit in awe at what we're surrounded by sometimes but hardly take a second glance at. It's really amazing.

I used macro mode for most but wish I had a macro lens.

My dads lilacs. They're enormous.

Gorgeous.

Our sad lone tulip. It really needs some friends. This fall I really need to remember to plant some more. Someone remind me then-k? ;)

Our Magnolia tree in the front. *Gasp* I wish it would always stay this beautiful. The blooms don't last near long enough. We spent as much time under the canopy of flowers as we could.

This was the first bloom on the magnolia "bush" I caught before the flowers all opened overnight.

And our sad single daffodil. Only one bloomed :( Not sure why.

Unfortunately this year we won't be planting a garden like last year (behind our neighbor's house) but I plan to get the kids involved and digging in the dirt when it's time to split and transplant some plants soon. I'm sad about the loss of the garden but plan to try and buy as much fresh produce locally at our farmer's market this year.

We are recycle freaks and tend to have more recycling than garbage. Wish we could have more containers. Chloe's job is to take to the curb and Gabe's is to bring up the empties. About a month ago I caught Sawyer going to the basement door, opening it (gasp! eek!!) and throwing his yogurt container in the recycling can. My jaw was on the floor. He is less than 2 years old-but I guess he's paid enough attention to the kinds of things that go in there instead of the trash. What a feeling to know you're doing something right!

What I wore~Week 1

2010-04-22T08:16:00.005-05:00

Following the lead of Lindsey over at The Pleated Poppy~I decided to photo my daily outfits for awhile. Let me say right now-I feel totally silly-but it HAS made me feel a little more accountable when I choose my clothes for the day. Instead of grabbing yoga pants and Trav's big old shirt I am forced to think about what I put on my body. Paying attention to what I wear-kind of like I did before we had kids...

I've loved looking at the others who have linked up with her and seeing different ways to pair up outfits or accessories ;)

Well......here we go...

Day 1:
Old Navy black top (scored for .97 cents!)
Apt 9 denim shorts
Reef flip flops
black "A" wax seal necklace-made by me
Do you like my Shey B camera strap that my friend Kim sent me? :) love it...

Day 2:
Green top from JCP -that I didn't realise how awful it looks til just now. Won't be wearing that again!
Mossimo shorts (hmm-not wild about these either!)
Reef flip flops

Day 3:

Old Navy top

white cami

necklace I bought way back in high school

old jeans (name?)

Simple brand tennis shoes

Day 4:

Old navy striped top

Old Navy grey cami

Apt 9 shorts

"Live" necklace-made by me

Day 5:

Ok, the day before I wore that shirt for 5 minutes until I realised how warm it was outside so I grabbed it off the closet doorknob the following day when it cooled off.

old jeans

old tennies

high school necklace again

Day 6:
Talbots cardigan that is the softest in the whole world!
white cami
Gap jeans
Simple brand tennis shoes
"Live" necklace made by me

Day 7:
JJill top
Abercrombie man jeans
Reef flip flops
"Live" necklace again

Spring!

2010-04-21T14:07:00.003-05:00

Hallelujah! The new computer screen we ordered for the laptop did the trick! I had almost 400 pics to upload-whew! I have a sneaking hunch the next few days you may be overloaded with picture heavy posts ;)

Here's a few from Chloe's first soccer practice for the spring session...

Playing with a little sunflare...

Anyone else ever get "the stink-eye"?

Andddddd...he snaps out of it!

Extras:

It's been absolutely gorgeous in our little part of the world. Sunny almost every day and mild temps. Chloe scored 3 goals for her soccer team on Saturday and is thrilled. Has her pumped up for next week-funny what that can do for your confidence. We leave for for a family wedding/vacation in Florida soon and the kids are so excited. On Gabe's list is building sandcastles and going to Busch Gardens to see animals. Chloe's just excited to get gussied up and go a wedding on a beach and be out of school while her friends are still there (lol) and Sawyer? I just hope he survives the drive down. Or we do. One or the other.

Don't be jealous of my bag...:)

2010-04-13T14:28:00.005-05:00

Well, I'm still on the old dinosaur computer...awaiting the new laptop screen that was ordered. Sure hope this will work! I've been so many pictures and have nowhere to upload...wah!

My Artist's Way 2 coarse started back up last week-looks like a fun group and am looking forward to seeing everyone weekly :)

Our magnolia tree bloomed~and is dropping it's blooms like crazy today. I sat out on the front steps doing my homework for class trying to get some sun on my legs and huge petals were raining all over me...Smells so good. Perfect day.

Oh, and I won a cutey patootie purse last night from Lindsey over at The Pleated Poppy! It's the first time I've ever won anything and I am JAZZED! I've had her posy pins on my xmas list, birthday list-you name it for maybe 2 years now. {he can't take a simple hint?} I loooove her blog and visit daily~go check it out!

*extras*

Chloe's soccer has started back up...Trav's indoor soccer is almost done...Gabe's resisting afternoon naps...Sawyer's in the throe's of terrible two's {and 2 yr molars-ugh}...started couch to 5K again and so far so good (and bought a pair of super cute capris a little too small for inspiration to lose a few more lbs)...huge neighborhood garage sale coming up-wow we've got a bunch of stuff!...lots of shopping {but with no luck} to find the perfect dress for a Florida beach family wedding next month...oh, and we're going primarily organic and it feels really good :)

M.I.A.

2010-04-05T20:46:00.002-05:00

Our computer monitor bit the dust. Waiting on the part that will hopefully solve the problem...so... I am currently on our ancient laptop that is almost worse than having no computer at all-lol.

I did dig thru some old photos that are on here tho and ran across this sweet pic of Gabe from 2 years ago.

Right before he fell and lost those sweet little chicklets up front there...:(

What a little sweetie.

{Just cos I hate to post w/o a pic hehe.}

We've been super busy here but I feel we have nothing to really show for it.

Neighborhood egg hunt, 3 stops for Easter, huge basement clean up, lots of walks and stating Couch to 5K over again~spring!! Throw in a few doctor appts, air duct cleaning, lost contact & vision testing, repeat ct from the fall (good), spring cleaning/getting ready for garage sale, taxes (ugh), researching basement paints and trying to find a driveway guy-whew!

And as we go on with these day to day things lately I've been trying to figure out how on earth I'll have the time to make items for a show coming up in June. I know it seems so far away but I haven't had the chance to sit at the torch for a couple months! Add a vacation and a 2cd birthday party in between now and then....agh. Oh! And the Artist's Way class starts back on Wednesday night! :)

Trav says I'll always find an excuse and that I just need to sign up for it-that I work better under pressure anyway. He's right...But right now I'm mad at Sam's Club for discontinuing the table I need (just need 1 more for art fairs and had planned to get it NOW), don't like my table coverings and don't have enough displays..ya, I know. whine whine whine...lol.

{Just me and him}

2010-03-25T13:30:00.002-05:00

An impromptu date was in order. I'd been out of state for 4 days-my first time away from any of them not counting when I was in the hospital to have each of them...

It seemed to affect Gabe the most-acting out towards me once I was home. I decided he needed some one on one mom time...

So we hit McD's for vanilla cones (before dinner!)....

Man, the kid needs a haircut!!

Gonna steal it... :)

And I brought Daddy's old duck call so we could go by the duckpond at the park. Quacking at them is about as good as feeding them it seemed...

Did some sliding.

And some spinning.

And more spinning....

Lots of sliding and swinging.

So glad we ran out to do this yesterday. We both needed it.

As I type I'm listening to the wind and rain hit the windows and wondering if there isn't a little hail mixed in-it's loud! Making it a very lazy day around here...Yawn!

~Spring is in the air~

2010-03-16T14:08:00.008-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted.....and it's been way too long since I've done any jewelry posts.
.

I have no good excuse. I just hate winter and tend to curl up into myself...

I grabbed a few minutes when the sun was {finally} out to take some jewelry shots. Yes, they could be better but I did what I could do...

I've been sitting on some pieces all winter and haven't posted them on Etsy. Why? Wish I knew. Maybe the beginnings of spring is lighting a fire under me... :)

There is a free business card promo going on over at MOO for Etsy shops that I thought I'd take advantage of. Hense, one more reason for some photos.

I'll try to add this sweet little flower cuff in my Etsy shop later on today...unless I snag it for myself. ;)

eta: it's now in my Etsy shop!!

Send some extra fun...

2010-03-02T19:04:00.004-06:00

Ok, so I admit-I'm totally old-school when it comes to wrapping kids birthday gifts. The Sunday comics. What would we do without them? My mom always wrapped with them and I guess it rubbed off... And after Chloe's first year of preschool with 15+ birthday parties -the handmade birthday cards became awfully handy too. I just can't imagine dumping all that money into wrapping paper and cards!

Here we have a picture of Gabe and his neighbor friend...It was taken in November and he had his birthday party last week. It was one of those last minute neighborhood things... so I scrounged for the comics (yea! we had some!) and whipped up a quickie card for him.

There are many free photo editing sites that let you convert your photo to a pencil sketch. I thought this would be a great little "extra gift" for him to be able to color-- and it's personalised!

Check out some of these sites for fun editing...

http://www.picnik.com/
http://www.befunky.com/create/
http://www.photofiddle.com/home.html

and send me a link if you end up editing something fun! I'd love to see...the possibilities are endless :)

Awwwwww.....

2010-02-27T19:53:00.003-06:00

Hmmmmmmm.
Well, that "awww" could go 2 different ways...

I'm lovin the new poster Chloe surprised me with tonite...

Not so loving the artwork Sawyer surprised me with....

I told Trav...even though she put the marker away (and he can reach into that drawer now thankyouverymuchneedtomoveeveryyything!) I think it's very interesting he had to find the exact same marker that she used and post his art right below hers...

Road trip!

2010-02-21T16:53:00.006-06:00

When my mom mentioned that my brother, who lives in Charlotte and I haven't seen in months, was going to be in St. Louis for the night we decided to hit the road to have a quick visit...

He is on the road with the group Carbon Leaf, who played at Blueberry Hill. he used to work full time for them when he was in Richmond (where they're from) but now he travels with them every now and then doing their sound.
We walked around for awhile window shopping while he did sound checks for a couple hours. Here's a sassy gal...lol
Had to take this music store pic for Gabe. Check out that guitar-lol.
The Loop-the area near Wash U is where we were. Lots of neat resteraunts, bars, bookstores and shops.
I swear 90% of my pics turned out like this-lol. The flash was too blinding right across the table...
We ate at Blueberry Hill with my brother, Clif and the drummer of the band, Jason.
I was surprised at how many cameras I saw sticking up other than mine. Glad I wasn't alone-lol.

Chloe's had a bit of a crush on the lead singer, Barry, ever since we saw them play a couple years ago up in Chicago when he dedicated a song to her for her birthday and got the whole audience to turn and look at her. She even had people telling her happy birthday later in the day who recogized her. lol. What 6 yr old wouldn't looooove that!? She even named her stuffed bear "Barry" after him...I don't think she's wild about the new beard though...
For their last song Suzanna Choffel got up to sing with them. She was the opener and was honestly very very good. I'm kicking myself now that I didn't buy one of her cd's...
We had to jump into the photo booth before heading out. I love that that place had a photo booth and try to remember to jump in one whenever the opportunity arrises. Poor mom was squished in on the floor-lol. Love this.
So glad we jumped in the car and went. Even though we didn't get to spend a ton of time with Clif it was nice to be with him. The music was great and I truly felt like an old lady driving 2 hrs to get home and in bed by 3. lol.

Lightbulb moments

2010-02-12T20:01:00.003-06:00

Winter. I'm so over it.

Chloe and I have been taking weekly trips to the library to make winter tolerable and expose ourselves to new reading (and her to the homeless population-you'd know what I mean if you live in Springfield...)

Here is what I've been working on this past week in bits and pieces. I'm trying to do my writing that goes along with the Artist's Way and am hopeful that something will rub off on me through reading this.

The other morning on the way to school Chloe gasped and said "Mom, look at all of the glitter in the snow today!" I had to look twice before I saw it. Until she'd mentioned it all I had seen was dirty slush and ice patches and that the stop sign had finally been replaced by the city after I'd called to tell them someone plowed it over in the ice a few weeks back.

This is basically how it looked. It took my breath away.

Photo from Google Images

I spent the rest of the morning asking myself the last time I'd "seen" the glitter in the snow. I didn't come up with an answer. That makes me sad.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~Pablo Picasso

An early Valentine...

2010-02-04T14:12:00.003-06:00

OK ok~so I made it for myself...still counts, doesn't it?

So I saw this cute little necklace in an {un named catalog} and thought "hey, that's pretty darned cute...$118? Ya right!" I've been a little-oh, shall we say-'uninspired" lately. It was time to get off the booty and whip up something cute and simple.

I have a small handful of these gorgeous garnet chunks that I haven't done anything with for ages (and just happens to be my birthstone) I love how imperfect they are...it's all fairly dainty-the "live" nugget is about 1/2 inch long. I pierced, sawed and sanded the open heart charm and oxidized both for a little extra warmth.

I struggled with what word I wanted to stamp...LOVE seemed so-easy? It was my first thought-then decided to go with my "word of the year".

Seems as though in early January everyone was pegging their word of the year. Their word to live by in 2010. I never professed mine but picked it out and kept it all snug in the back of my mind.

live.

A little meaning behind this....after "the great scare of December 2009" with the funky lung CT all I could think was "I want to LIVE" I was scared, wide-eyed, weak, pissed....you name it, I felt it. Now that the scare is behind me and we moved to 2010 "live" took on an additional meaning and I want to wear it to remind me...

As a SAHM of 3 little ones and trying to get a small business off the ground at the same time it's hard to find balance. Days start to feel somewhat reminiscent of "Groundhog Day"-the same day over and over. Laundry, dishes, breakfast, off to school, lunches, clean ups, nap time/(ME time!), home from school, homework, dinner, bedtime...over and over and over...and my "me" time is roughly 2 hrs if I'm lucky. So "live" takes on something else now. Live it up. Go for it. Switch it up. Go somewhere. Get out of the house. Do something. Have fun....You only live once.

.....................Right?

Weekend projects

2010-01-30T16:23:00.005-06:00

I've noticed a ton of new visitors stopping by here lately :) I wanted to say a quick

I always love to hear where people are finding me from...If you have a quick sec jump into comments and say hi!

We've been busy with all sorts of fun new stuff the past week. Funny-seems I'd have so much to write about-then when I sit here ready to write I feel blank.

Today had me twisting myself upside down to paint under a shelf very carefully not to lean on a new glass desktop-that was fun for the lower back! I've got lots of new pictures ready to load up and post on my shared house project blog with my friend, Kim. By all means, swing by there and take a peek at some of the things we've been working on around here.

I'm so over this weather! So happy the sun was out in full blast today-not a cloud in the sky! It really helps my motivation...I'm so ready to head back to class for The Artist's Way-wish it was March already! In the meantime I've been trying to plan ahead for shows this year and soaking up books on business junk and art inspiration. Fun times.

Top model

2010-01-20T10:28:00.003-06:00

Meet my sassy new friend! She needs a name.....anyone?

I've been wanting one of these for quite some time...and was lucky enough to score her through freecycle! FREE!! Gotta love that!

I've been thinking it would be fun to have one set at the edge of my tent at shows modeling something. She's begging for a makeover though. I'll have to add that to my list of projects...

Linked back to Reinvented Trash to Treasure Tuesday...

Time to grow up

2010-01-18T13:24:00.002-06:00

Sigh......I guess it was time. His bangs were hanging past his nose. People would stop us to tell us how pretty her eyes were. I found myself wanting to raid Chloe's hair clips to pull his hair back when he ate...lol.

I've been holding onto it as long as I could-but it was time. Dad demanded it was time-lol.

A good example of how long it had gotten...

It seems like just yesterday I was chopping Gabe's long hair off and sharing it on here...

My baby is gone and has been replaced by a little boy. My last baby-the last "first haircut".

Bella Rhys Designs

Yum

Another bullet

Colors

Bits and bobs

Gettin down to business...

Introduction

Coming home.

Charleston part 4 (the end.)

My new necklace

Charleston~part 3

Breaking for a craft

Vacation Part 2

Vacation~South Carolina

Happy 4th*

Ten

Three days at The Gables

Custom order

Our last 3rd

Summer List 2011

In a blender, combine the orange juice, milk, water, sugar and vanilla. Cover and blend until smooth. With blender running, add ice cubes, one at a time, through the opening in lid. Blend until smooth. Serve immediately. Yield: 4-5 servings.

*I think the next time I make them as popsicles I'll have to add a little vanilla ice cream when I blend to make it a smidge creamier. Otherwise-they rocked!

Troubled

Tomorrow

One from today

Heinous

Magnolia

Testing

Spring

Awesome project!

Anticipating

WIWW-New tops

A new place to apply lipstick

D+M

WIWW

He's the coolest

Chloe's dream come true

Merry Christmas

Floridians in the cold

Scenes from an open house

We "shook hands with Lincoln"

Random Wednesday

Not my family photos-for once!

Panther Creek

Sneaky peek

Halloween 2010

Around the house yesterday...

Craft sale

He's got his daddy's rhythm

WIWW

Boys and trucks

Garage sale SCORE!

Getting creative with the kiddos

WIWW

Friday thoughts

*Today*

A few minutes of peace

A walk around the state fair~

Treasury

The Spastic Worm

The Tide is High........

Ants in my pants

Today~

Dreams?

Which way to go?

A Little somethin'

recess

Cool find!

WIWW

Orderly

Our way home...

The vacation that never ends

what i wore wednesday

Hippo

Artist market~week 2

First outdoor art fair

Random Friday

Kids art projects week 1

Summer has begun

Part 4...yep, still working on em!

Today

Spring!